The Washington Spectator is an independent, progressive and reader-supported journal of politics and the arts published each month in print, and updated daily online at washingtonspectator.org.
Founded in 1974 by veteran Capitol Hill reporter and Vietnam War critic Tristram Coffin, the Spectator delivers a unique blend of sharp-edged investigative reporting, informed social and political commentary, and cultural criticism and essays on topics ranging from popular cinema to the new women’s movement, to the recent advances in artificial intelligence.
No institution in our society is more central to the function and survival of our democratic system than the press. Editor and Publisher Hamilton Fish summarizes the Washington Spectator’s mission this way: “In an era where one-half the mainstream media is obsessed by celebrity and the other is distracted by digital metrics, there’s a desperate need for the small, fearless, independent outlet that holds public and private elites accountable, advances reform, and helps to insure the continuing vitality of the democratic process. Our readers are discerning, and we try to provide them with regular access to fine writing, authoritative reporting and informed progressive opinion.”
Senior political writer Lou Dubose — co-author of The Hammer (the book that indicted Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay) — has filed stories from Guantanamo, Alaska, Mexico City, Christmas in Detroit, Washington State’s Lummi Nation, and the Mississippi Delta.
The ranks of the Spectator’s world-renowned journalists, scholars, and activists include renegade writer William T. Vollmann on poverty in America; Belén Fernández on contrasting US responses to protests in Honduras and Iran; the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Cay Johnston on winners and losers in our post-industrial economy; Canadian technology critic Katharine Dempsey on the social implications of the coming artificial intelligence boom; Spain’s Ortega y Gasset Prize winner Judith Torrea on the narco wars in Ciudad Juaréz; climate change activist legend Bill McKibben on the campaign to end our addiction to fossil fuels; lawyer-journalist Scott Horton truth-testing CIA lawyer John Rizzo’s auto-hagiography; and Rev. William Barber describing the fierce urgency of the modern civil rights movement.
The Spectator relies on the generous contributions of our readers to support these essential voices. Please consider purchasing a print subscription, following us on Facebook and Twitter, or making a financial contribution.
